SC asks Centre to file status report on foreign prisoners

The Supreme Court today asked the Centre to file a report on the latest status of the foreign nationals, including those from Pakistan, languishing in jails after having serving out their full sentence.
A direction to this effect came from a bench comprising Justices A K Sikri and Ashok Bhushan after Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar submitted that the Centre had filed a status report in the matter in April last year.
"The Union of India had filed a status report in the form of an additional affidavit dated April 19, 2016. Let that report be updated and a latest report be filed," the bench said.

The apex court also asked the Jammu and Kashmir government to file a report in this regard after senior advocate Bhim Singh, the petitioner in the case, said that the state should also be directed to furnish the details about such foreign nationals.
Singh, who heads a political party, Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party, told the bench that when he had filed the plea in 2005, there were 82 such persons who were detained in Jammu and Kashmir.
To this, the bench said, "What is the position today? Some of them must have been released or deported? We want to know the today's position."

Singh said the Centre should furnish the latest report about such prisoners.

The solicitor general referred to the orders passed by the apex court earlier in the matter and said the government, in its April last year affidavit, had given details about the system which was in place.
The apex court, which has posted the matter to hearing on July 27, asked the Centre and Jammu and Kashmir to file the reports by July 20.
The court was hearing a prayer seeking release and repatriation of foreign nationals languishing in different jails in India even after having served their full sentence.

The petition has also espoused the cause of Pakistani prisoners arrested for illegally entering India through Jammu and Kashmir.
The petitioner had earlier told the apex court that 37 prisoners were still languishing in Amritsar jail and they should be repatriated to their country as they have completed their sentence.
Expressing serious concern over prolonged imprisonment of such prisoners, the apex court had directed the Centre to release and repatriate within four weeks 61 Pakistani nationals languishing in jails in India despite having undergone their punishment for various offences.
It had also asked the government to bring in a suitable mechanism to ensure that such foreign nationals were not forced to remain in jails as courts were being frequently flooded with complaints about Pakistani nationals remaining incarcerated despite having served their sentence.